CVE-2021-22205
Actively exploited. CVE-2021-22205 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2021-22205 is indexed in Metasploit, Exploit-DB, GitHub PoC and Nuclei. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
GitHub Community and Enterprise Editions that utilize the ability to upload images through GitLab Workhorse are vulnerable to remote code execution. Workhorse passes image file extensions through ExifTool, which improperly validates the image files.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions are vulnerable to remote code execution due to improper validation of image files.
- Who is affected
- Deployments of GitLab that utilize image uploads through GitLab Workhorse.
- Urgency
- Remediation is urgent due to active exploitation and critical severity.
- Action
- Update to the latest version of GitLab.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 100% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2021-22205 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- MetasploitA Metasploit Framework module targets this CVE — weaponized, point-and-click exploitation.look it up ↗
- Exploit-DBA public exploit is published in the Exploit-DB archive.look it up ↗
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
- NucleiA nuclei-templates detection/PoC template exists for this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2021-22205: GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
External references
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[](https://www.csirts.com/cve/CVE-2021-22205)